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Title The meaning of the library : a cultural history / edited by Alice Crawford
Published Princeton, New Jersey Princeton University Press, [2015]
©2015

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Description xxix, 300 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm
Contents Introduction / Alice Crawford -- Part 1. The Library through Time. 1. Adventures in ancient Greek and Roman libraries / Edith Hall 2. The image of the medieval library / Richard Gameson 3. The Renaissance library and the challenge of print / Andrew Pettegree 4. From printing shop to bookshelves : how books began the journey to Enlightenment libraries / Robert Darnton 5. "The advantages of literature" : the subscription library in Georgian Britain / David Allan 6. Literature and the library in the nineteenth century / John Sutherland -- Part 2. The Library in Imagination. 7. The library in fiction / Marina Warner 8. The library in poetry / Robert Crawford 9. The library in film : order and mystery / Laura Marcus -- Part 3. The Library Now and in the Future. 10. "Casting and gathering" : libraries, archives, and the modern writer / Stephen Enniss 11. Meanings of the library today / John P. Wilkin 12. The modern library and global democracy / James H. Billington
Summary From Greek and Roman times to the digital era, the library has remained central to knowledge, scholarship, and the imagination. Generously illustrated, "The Meaning of the Library" examines this key institution of Western culture. Tracing what the library has meant since its beginning, examining how its significance has shifted, and pondering its importance in the twenty-first century, contributors -- including the librarian of the Congress and the former executive director of the HathiTrust -- present a cultural history of the library. Whether relishing an account of the Alexandrian Library or a look at the stylish railway libraries of nineteenth-century England, readers will find a survey of the library through time. Here, too, are the imagined libraries of fiction, poetry, and film, from Scheherazade's stories to "The Name of the Rose" and beyond.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 267-280) and index
Subject Essays
Libraries -- History
Libraries
Libraries and society
Genre/Form History.
Author Crawford, Alice, 1958-, editor of compilation
Hall, Edith, 1959-, author
Gameson, Richard, author
Pettegree, Andrew, author
Darnton, Robert, author
Allan, David, 1964-, author
Sutherland, John, 1938-, author
Warner, Marina, 1946-, author
Crawford, Robert, 1959-, author
Marcus, Laura, author
Enniss, Stephen, author
Price-Wilkin, W. John (William John), 1956-, author
Billington, James H, author
LC no. 2014951291
ISBN 9780691166391 (hbk. : acid-free paper)
0691166390 (hbk. : acid-free paper)